Press Release

AKLAN NGO WINS WORLD BANK PHILIPPINES
DEVELOPMENT INNOVATION MARKETPLACE AWARD
Winning Proposal Promotes Coconut-based Livelihood Generation


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Banga, Aklan, Philippines
January 10, 2004


Sustainable Rural Enterprise (SRE), an Aklan-based non-government organization (NGO), bagged one of the 51 awards at the first World Bank Philippines Development Innovation Marketplace (WB-DIM) competition held at the SM Megatrade on January 9-10, 2004. One hundred seventeen finalists – out of some 1,700 applications from all over the country – showcased their projects in the exhibit competition, Panibagong Paraan (innovative process) – Making Services Work for the Poor. SRE’s winning project proposal was entitled, Coconut-based Livelihood Generation Using Renewable Energy.

Bannered by its Always Use Your Coconut! logo, SRE’s booth depicted, step-by-step, how the waste coconut husk is processed – using a biomass gasifier fuelled by raw coconut shells to run the decorticator – into fiber for geotextiles, mats, drapes, caps and backpacks; coco dust or peat for use as planting medium or soil nutrient, among others, all of which were also on display.

“It was obvious, from the reaction of thousands of exhibit viewers, that a great number of Filipinos are not even aware that the lowly bunot (coconut husk) – which we throw away or burn, resulting in air pollution – is a tremendous source of livelihood and income for our small coconut farmers, particularly, for women,” beamed Perla Manapol, SRE president. Pointing to photographs of a badly-eroded hillside, and the same hillside a few weeks later covered by coconut fiber nets with grass growth, Manapol added, “Why import non-environment-friendly plastic nets when our very own coconut fiber nets do just as good a job, if not better, of controlling soil erosion?”

The market for geotextiles is expected to grow, especially with the implementation of Presidential Memorandum Circular No. 25, dated September 2002, which mandates the use of these materials for all government infrastructure projects. In addition, China, which will be hosting the 2008 Olympics, is sourcing coconut fiber from all over Asia for use in mattresses, and geotextile nets for upgrading roads, hillsides, and riverbanks.

It is hoped that adding value to coconut byproducts other than copra and oil will encourage coconut farmers to stop cutting their trees to sell as lumber – a leading factor in the decline of the coconut industry in the Philippines. Toward this end, SRE will undertake an aggressive marketing, information, and education campaign to promote its products and services in both domestic and international markets.

In anticipation of orders for its nets and other products, SRE will use its WB-DIM grant to expand, and to replicate, the “Aklan model” to other economically-depressed, coconut-growing communities. Emphasis will be on training, and employing, women and out-of-school youth. SRE will also purchase a new decorticator to be fuelled by coconut diesel (Coco Methyl Ester, CME), and will produce several rolls of geotextile nets to be used for demonstration installations in mangroves, fishponds, hillsides, forests, riverbanks, and mining areas. (SRE is currently undertaking feasibility studies for replicating the Aklan model in Basilan in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.) “The grant from the WB-DIM will allow SRE to become self-supporting by the end of the year, with a work force of as many as 500 families in Aklan alone,” Manapol says.

Providing jobs, preventing land degradation, promoting the use of renewable energy, reviving the coconut industry – that’s a tall order for a four-year-old NGO.

“Not if you Always Use Your Coconut!” Manapol quips.


CONTACT INFORMATION
Perla L. Manapol, President
Sustainable Rural Enterprise
Aklan State University, Main Campus
Banga, Aklan, Philippines
Telephone: (63)(36) 267-6811
Fax: (63)(36) 268-4765
Mobile: (63)(916) 361-1094
E-mail: pmanapol@hotmail.com; perlama@juno.com
Website/Blog: http://coconutsgalore.blogspot.com